Simplifying integration with a single IWMS

How UCF was able to optimize space management

Campus Overview

• Customer: University Central Florida (UCF)
• Industry: Higher Education
• Scope:
  • 293 buildings
  • 14.8 million square feet managed
  • 532 facilities staff
  • 70,000+ Students
  • 1,415 Acres

The Challenge – Two independent database systems

After using AiM, AssetWorks' facilities management software, for operations and maintenance and asset management for almost ten years, UCF's facilities department was faced with another system for maintaining space information.

Several years ago, UCF's Space Administration team, an academic reporting team sitting outside the facilities department, purchased ARCHIBUS and made it the authoritative database for all things space-related on campus. At the same time, the facilities department managed its own property and location database for work management and asset management through AiM. The reality of having two individual systems, unless fully integrated, is that there will be anomalies between them, and this case was no different. This had impacts on the facilities team's ability to execute their duties.

The Facilities team often received updates from their own technicians telling them that a room had changed location or function. For example, storage rooms might now be classrooms or vice versa. This data inconsistency also decreased the efficiency of their operations.

As Jennifer Jordan, UCF Facilities noted, ". . .  we would bill for work done in a location that had housed one department, but we weren't notified that those departments moved. So we would be billing the wrong department."

Coupled with this, UCF was implementing a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) tool, WorkDay. In the implementation process, all software that integrated with the previous ERP, PeopleSoft, was in review. With two individual facilities systems, it simply didn't make sense to double integration costs and integrate two individual solutions with WorkDay. Two systems would make integrating new software increasingly difficult, expensive, and inefficient. It was time to evaluate the system topology.

The Solution – A single integrated solution

The facility team's new senior leader had previously worked with ARCHIBUS and understood the system's capabilities as a maintenance solution with a solid space offering. After becoming more familiar with AiM and its ability to serve both space management and operations and maintenance functions effectively, it was clear that AiM had features that made it the obvious solution to a complex situation. Having space management move to AiM offered many benefits, including cutting integration costs for the new ERP, increasing data visibility across multiple teams, and integrating into a familiar system that already had a strong operations and maintenance setup. At this point, AssetWorks stepped in to manage the multi-phase integration over an eight-week period. 

Assetworks broke the project into three phases to create as little disruption to both departments as possible. Jordan remarked, "The biggest issue for the first two months was just mapping all the fields […], so that we were still maintaining the other databases that use space information on campus." The solution required hard work and focus during those transitional weeks. 

The Results – Improved data efficacy and department synchronicity

AssetWorks was able to help UCF integrate space management as part of their IWMS solutions, thereby reducing duplicate software types to create efficiencies. These actions not only reduced integration efforts with the new ERP system but ensured that updates from space management were now immediately transparent to all relevant teams. Data now synced efficiently and was readily available.  

While their previous setup was functioning, UCF and AssetWorks were able to work together to optimize their efforts in a short amount of time by leveraging the full capabilities of the AiM IWMS. As a result, UCF is now able to harness the power of many of the five pillars of AiM in a single solution. 

About AiM AiM, the core of our real estate and facility management system features five distinct pillars that offer end-to-end facilities management. AiM will meet your facility's needs and surpass your expectations.